Ugandans continue to wait for coffee plant compensation

In 2001, more than 4,000 people were evicted from their land in Uganda after it had been acquired by German coffee firm Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG) on a 99-year lease. 

Many of the residents of Kyengeza village in Mubende district were forcefully driven off their land, which lies approximately 140 kilometers (87 miles) from Uganda's capital Kampala, to make way for a 2,500-hectare (4.9-acre) coffee plantation.

NKG has maintained that its lease of the land from the Ugandan government was signed in good faith. The company also acknowledged that 25 families in the Mubende district resisted relocation and were subsequently removed by government authorities.

In 2002, farmers sued the government in Kampala, as well as NKG and its Ugandan subsidiary, Kaweri Coffee Plantation.

NKG claimed the Ugandan government compensated 166 families, however many Ugandans, including Scola Namuyanja, claim that no compensation has been paid to them. 

The 67-year-old woman said she still recalls what happened more than two decades ago.

What happened in 2001?

"We heard President Yoweri Museveni announce that he had given our land to investors and that we would be compensated for all our property — our land, our house, our crops," said Namuyanja.

The government had promised them a new strip of land, where a school and a health center were to be built. But there was only forest, Namuyanja said.

"There was no school, no hospital — not even a water source. That's why we didn't move. When the deadline expired, army soldiers came and evicted us by force," she recounted.

Today, the elderly woman lives with her sons and grandchildren in a simple mud hut at the edge of the plantation.

NKG feels it is not to blame

According to Uganda's constitution, foreign companies are not permitted to buy land outright — they can only lease it for a specified period. In the case of the coffee plantation, the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) purchased the 2,500 hectares in Mubende in April 2001 and then leased it to NKG's subsidiary, Kaweri Coffee Plantation.

NKG is a long-established company based in Hamburg. With 60 subsidiaries across 27 countries, it stands as a leading entity in the green coffee sector. Aside from Uganda, the company also operates plantations in Mexico and Brazil.

The company declined to comment about the legal dispute in Uganda, but did state it had agreed with the Ugandan government that only so-called clean title land would be considered for a subsequent lease — in other words, land that is free from claims by third parties.

Delayed justice

In the first verdict in 2013, the Ugandan government was acquitted. Landowner Kayiwa was ordered to pay €11 million ($12 million) in compensation, however he appealed the ruling and has since died. The plaintiffs are trying to assert their claims with the Ugandan government.

With the help of the German human rights network FIAN, the farmers filed a complaint with the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in 2015. Since then, numerous high-ranking politicians have been involved in attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement.

It was not until 2017, partly due to pressure from the German government, that representatives of the Ugandan president presented the plaintiffs with an offer for a settlement. All further hearings were delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

An agreement — and another lawsuit

In April 2021, a final agreement was reached with a compensation package of less than €1 million euros — a fraction of the €30 million originally demanded.

"I remember how the judge insisted at the time that these people should be paid immediately," said Francis Katabalva, a lawyer who has been helping displaced families for 22 years. "Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet."

For 143 of those affected, including Scola Namuyanja, this was not enough. They want their land back. Their lawsuit was transferred to the High Court in Mubende in 2022 — with the condition that the process be reopened from scratch.

Namuyanja refuses to give up.

"I am still demanding that Neumann compensates us and does not expand the plantation so as not to take this land away from me too."

This article was originally written in German.

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